PMAGPY

Lisa Tauxe, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

last updated: August 28th, 2008 see CHANGES NB: I've added map plotting programs that require the basemap toolkit for matplotlib. If you want to use these, you must install basemap (see instructions here:)

PmagPy is a software package written by Lisa Tauxe for handling paleomagnetic data, including the MagICPy scripts to help import paleomagnetic data into the MagIC database. It is written in Python and requires installation of matplotlib, numpy modules (several programs also require scipy). For instructions on a proper installation of Python for Mac OS 10.4 and Windows operating systems, see here.

Knowledge of Python is not required to use the software, but would be useful for customizing the programs for your own use. There are numerous web sites with tutorials and detailed information about Python, but for a quickie introduction to python programming in paleomagnetism, see here. For examples on how to use the programs, see here.

For a complete lecture series on paleomagnetism, see here.

To install the latest beta version of PmagPy software distribution:

Download one of the following packages:

Version 1.71b

Zip file

Tar file

(Archived versions)

Unpack it by clicking on the icon. In the distribution directory is a folder with the latest distribution pmagpy-1.XXb. Make a directory in your home directory called PmagPy. (For windows users, make the directory C:\PmagPy). Copy the contents of pmagpy-1.XXb into PmagPy.

Set your path (if you haven't already done so):

Setting path on Mac OS 10.4

• The window in Tiger is a Unix Shell of which there are many varieties. The default shell is called "bash".
  Assuming you are using the "bash" shell (dollar sign prompt), you set the path like this:
  On the command line type this:
  cat >> .bash_profile
• export PATH=/usr/local/bin:~/PmagPy:./:$PATH
• ctrl-D
• The first two lines are followed by a carriage return. The last line means to press the ctrl and D keys simultaneously.
• Each new window opened subsequently will have the correct version of python in its path.

Setting path on Windows:

• Find the control panel under "settings" with the START button. If you don't see a "System" icon, you might have to select "Classic view". Select the "System" icon and "Enviroment Variables" under the "Advanced" tab to edit the "path" environment variable to include your PmagPy directory (put ";C:\PmagPy" in the "Variable Value" string. Click "OK" and save the new environment variables.
  

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The PmagPy programs should be available to you in a command (terminal) window.

To test whether things are installed properly, open a terminal window (terminal.app in the Utilities folder in Applications on a Mac or the command prompt in Windows) and type:

eqarea.py -h

you should get a help message. If you don't, you probably didn't set your path correctly.

For more on the PmagPy distribution, see the documentation pages here and examples for how to use the programs here

Download test datafiles here

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For a short cut to the MagIC database, use the program MagIC.py.